Congratulations!

The California Cheese & Butter Association has hired an assistant to work with the executive director. Her name is Leah Nottingham and we all wish her a warm welcome!

The next California Cheese & Butter Association board meeting will be November 17, 1999 at, Horizon Sales in Costa Mesa, California from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm (Orange Co. airport).

The 2000 California Cheese & Butter Convention will be held May 4,5, & 6, 2000 at Lake Arrowhead Resort, Lake Arrowhead, California. The convention chair is Barry Zuroff of Horizon Sales Corporation 714.979.4844.

The 2001 convention will be held April 19, 29 & 21, 2001 at the Resort at Squaw Creek, Olympic Valley, California. The convention chair has not been announced. Any volunteers?

I wanted to update the CODEX reporting that The Mooos has been following. Early July, The Codex Alimentarius Commission, approved nine standards covering cheese and other dairy foods. These nine standards are effective immediately and will be used by the World Trade Organization as the basis for resolving international trade disputes. While the US is not required to adopt the standards for domestic use, the US Food and Drug Administration will review the standards and is encouraged to adopt them. Included in what the Codex Commission approved is a revised standard for cheese and butter.

Under this standard, cheese is defined as the ripened or unripened soft or semi-hard, hard and extra hard product, which may be coated, and in which the whey protein/casein ratio does not exceed that of raw milk, obtained by:

1. Coagulating wholly or partly the following materials: milk and/or products obtained from milk, through the action of rennet or other suitable coagulation; and or
   
   
2. Processing techniques involving coagulation of milk and/ or products obtained from milk, which give an end product with similar physical, chemical and organoleptic characteristics as the product defined under the first point above.

From raw material production to the point of consumption, the products covered by the cheese standard should be subject to a combination of control measures, which may include, for example, pasteurization, and these should be shown to achieve the appropriate level of public health protection.

Other dairy standards approved by the commission included: (I have only listed cheese and butter. For a complete list contact www.cheesereporter.com

1. Whey Cheese: The standard defines whey cheese as the solid or semi-solid product obtained by the concentration of whey, with or without the addition of milk, cream, or other raw materials of milk origin, and the molding of the concentrated product.
   
   
2. Cheeses in Brine: The standard defines cheeses in brine as semi-hard to soft ripened cheeses in conformity with the general cheese standard. The body has a white to yellowish color and a compact texture suitable for slicing, with none to few mechanical openings. The cheeses have no actual rind and have been ripened and preserved in brine until delivered to, or prepacked for, the consumer. Certain individual cheeses in brine contain specific herbs and spices as part of their identity.
   
   
3. Butter: The standard calls for butter to have a minimum milkfat content of 80 percent, maximum water content of 16 percent, and maximum milk solids-not-fat content of 2 percent.

The California Milk Advisory Board is doing some exciting things!

1. CMAB just received the Highest Public Relation Industry Honor! It is called CIPRA, Creativity In Public Relations Award for the public relations efforts surrounding the NFC Championship Game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers. "It's the CHEESE!"